The third Reich

As a history teacher, having a history major in college, and being a fairly good student, you would think I knew what this meant. I mean I knew it had something to do with Germany, and specifically with the Nazis but that was the extent of my knowledge. No one had ever taken the minute to explain it, and I apparently had never asked. I understand that big words are sometimes challenging, and that sometimes I get confused with them, but at least there are context clues to help. There aren't any.

So the third reich, for those of you also afraid to ask, is basically the third ruling, or power, or empire of the Germans. The first one being the Holy roman empire throughout the middle ages, and the second one being after the fall of Napoleon. The rign of the Nazi party is considered the third.

In the UK, I focused my learning, around royalty and the timeline, trends of the area. In Germany, Amsterdamn and Austria, I want to focus my learning on world war two and the holocaust. As an American and specifically as Jew, I have learned about the Holocaust and world war 2 through a very specific lens. When I was younger, I learned so much about it, I was numb to it, and was tired of hearing about it. I understood it was bad, and wanted to learn about something else. Yet now that I am an adult, I want to learn about it, but through a different lens, a different scope. These past few days I have been able to take a tour of the Third Reich in Berlin, Sachaussen(spelling) concentration camp, and the jewish museum. I was finally able to see Europe, and see the war from another perspective. I was able to see past the emotional teaching, that has been taught to me in the past and really see more of a fuller picture.

This, combined with the imperial war museums holocaust museum in London, has made this past week or so pretty heavy, so I decided to lighten it up. Unlike in the other cities Ive been in, my hostel has not been too friendly(having 31 other people in my room might have somethign to do with it), and I keep meeting people on tours who are leaving that day, so needless to say ive had no one to go out with, and I really wanted to go out!!! Going against my natural character, I decided to throw caution to the wind and sign up for the pub crawl bymself. It was terrifying as nearly everyone else was with other people and alot of them were young, I found I was nearly constantly engaged in conversation, with nearly everyong I walked near. Since this is a family blog as well as friends, Ill leave my experience at the pub crawl there, but needless to say I had some much much needed good time, and didnt get back to my hostel to nearly 5am(the club just didnt close!!)

Unlike London, I tried not to do everything in this city, and after doing the generic bike tour, focusing my energies on things that interest me vs. things "you just have to do in Berlin". Yea, I could have done more and I could have seen more, but then I would be exhausted and crabby like I was in the UK alot.

Once again, sorry for no pictures, although Im not sure too many of you are even reading this, so I might only be apologizing to myself.